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Top 10 Richest Entrepreneurs in 2019 & How They Made It

An entrepreneur is a person who sets up a business or an organization by taking a financial risk.

With financial risk comes a chance to earn financial rewards in terms of profit. Apart from financial gain, entrepreneurs are also motivated by factors like innovation, disruption, making an impact etc.

What makes a successful entrepreneur? What made the richest entrepreneurs so successful?

I believe entrepreneurial success depends on the following traits:

Strategic mindset

People management skills

Holding nerve during a downturn

Perseverance

But entrepreneurship isn’t easy & definitely not a recommended career line for the faint hearted ones. Having said that, it does provide an immense opportunity to change the world for a better. Had an entrepreneur not taken a risk then products like social networks, search engines, messenger apps & digital wallets would not have been invented.

With numerous global challenges now, the world needs more & better entrepreneurs. But, unfortunately, entrepreneurship hasn’t picked pace like other professions due to various business factors like increased competitiveness. As per a study conducted by CNN, number of Startups in the US had hit a 40-year low in the year 2016.

So, now let us go through a list of top 10 richest entrepreneurs (as per Forbes latest report)

TOP 10 RICHEST ENTREPRENEURS

1. Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos is the founder & CEO of the e-commerce giant Amazon. With a net worth of $112 Billion, he tops the list of richest entrepreneurs. He founded Amazon as an online bookstore in the year 1994. After that, there was no looking back for Bezos as he kept adding new categories of products. Today, Amazon is not only world’s largest online shopping platform but also has diversified interests in many other businesses like Amazon Web Services, Alexa, Junglee, Audible etc.

2. Bill Gates

Bill Gates is the founder of the PC software firm Microsoft corporation. With a net worth of $90 billion, Gates is at number second on the list. He is widely credited as one of the pioneers who revolutionized the personal computing industry with Microsoft’s operating system ‘Windows’. Started in 1975, Microsoft now has diversified interests in various companies including Skype, LinkedIn, Yammer, Microsoft Mobile (Earlier known as Nokia). He is also actively involved in various philanthropic projects.

3. Warren Buffett

Warren Buffet is one of the most successful investors of our time. With a net worth of $84 billion, he is at the number 3 spot on this list. He owns Berkshire Hathaway which owns more than 60 companies including Geico & Duracell. He has pledged to donate 99% of his wealth towards charities.

4. Bernard Arnault

Bernard Arnault is the chairman & CEO of the fashion conglomerate LVMH, the world’s largest luxury-goods company. With a net worth of $72 billion, he also happens to be Europe’s richest person. LVMH has more than 70+ brands under its belt.

5. Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg is the famous co-founder & CEO of the social network Facebook. With a net worth of $71 billion, he is 5th on this list (also the youngest). Since its inception in 2004, Facebook has grown leaps & bounds. Recently, Facebook acquired social network & messenger apps called Instagram & WhatsApp respectively. Zuckerberg has pledged to donate 99% of his Facebook holdings towards charity.

6. Amancio Ortega

Amancio Ortega is the co-founder of Inditex which runs the popular fashion chain Zara. With a net worth $70 billion he is at number 6 on this list. Inditex has 8 brands & operates more than a whopping 7,500 stores across the world.

7. Carlos Slim Helu

Carlos Slim Helu owns America Movil, Mexico’s biggest mobile telecom company. With a net worth of $67 billion, he is at #7 on this list. Also, he has diversified interests in other sectors like construction, consumer goods, mining, real estate & media.

8. Charles Koch

Charles Koch is the chairman & CEO of Koch Industries, US second largest private company. With a net worth of $60 billion, he is at #8 on this list of richest entrepreneurs. Koch Industries have diversified interest in various businesses including pipelines, chemicals & dixie cup etc.

9. David Koch

Charles Koch holds majority shares along with his brother Charles Koch in Koch Industries, US second largest private company. With a net worth of $60 billion, he is at #9 on this list. Koch Industries have diversified interest in various businesses including pipelines, chemicals & dixie cup etc.

10. Larry Ellison

Larry Ellison is the co-founder of the software company Oracle. With a net worth of $58.5 billion, he is at #10 on this list. Oracle is mainly in CRM databases. And, with its recent acquisition of NetSuite, it took a giant leap in cloud computing.

Conclusion

I believe money isn’t the correct parameter to judge if an entrepreneur (or for that matter even a person) is rich.

At the end of the day what matters is the impact, the social impact.

Anyways, the objective of this post was to list the names of billionaire entrepreneurs in monetary terms.